Overview

The 1807 Altus Limited (AL) is made with our special alloy of Altus 946 Silver™.

Material Composition

Altus Silver™ lip plate and riser, Altus Silver™ seamed headjoint, body and footjoint, silver mechanism - soldered tone holes

Our proprietary Altus Silver™ alloy is a perfectly engineered blend consisting of 94.6% silver and 18 precious metals, including small amounts of platinum and gold. Inspired by the preferred metallurgy of the great French flute making tradition, Altus silver was designed specifically for seamed tube creation. This results in a flute capable of producing a wide array of complex tonal colors.

The Altus seamed tube is made from a flat piece of metal that is rolled, hand planished and then seamed. It is truly the only handmade flute tube available in modern production.

The process to create the sintered 99.7% silver key pipes is unique to Altus. Powdered silver metal is compacted at a high temperature to fuse particles together directly into a rigid tube, strengthening our key pipe structure and increasing playability.

The tone hole chimneys are formed separately and then soldered to the flute joint. This process allows for a consistent wall thickness around the holes and thus enables an even better resonance and timbre.

This model comes with a wall tubing customization.

Altus Scale

Altus flute maker Shuichi Tanaka and renowned British flutist William Bennett shared an admiration for Albert Cooper’s vision of updating and modernizing the traditional flute scale. They created the Altus Scale to provide effortless intonation, impeccably tuned harmonics, and exceptionally balanced registers, setting a new standard for flute design. This monumental achievement is one of the hallmarks of the great Altus flute making tradition.